FIBRINOGEN

n. Fi-bri2n'o-je2n. From fibrin, and ytvvav, to produce. Fr., flbrinogene. Ger.," F. A proteid substance, first described by Schmidt (Pfliiger's Archiv," vi, p. 413 [1872]), existing in blood-serum and serous transudations, and by its union with par globulin, under the influence of the fibrin ferment, forming fibrin. Woold ridge ("Proc. of the Roy. Soc.," April 6, 1886) describes four varieties of f.: A-f., a proteid-lecithin compound, separable under the form of rounded granules from the blood-plasma by cooling; -B-/., a proteid-lecithin compound forming the bulk of the f. of the blood and coagulable by the addition of lecithin or of leucocytes from the lymphatic glands; C-f., the f. of Schmidt, which is the only variety coagulable by the fibrin-f., but which exists in the blood in very minute quantities; a variety found in the lymph-serum of the lymphatic glands, closely related to A-f., and differing from it in having the power of causing coagulation of the blood while in the ve els. According to Woold ridge, coagulation is a physical proce allied to crystallization, consisting e entially in a lo of lecithin by A-f to B-f., which is thus converted into fibrin. [B; K.] FIBRINOGENIC, FIBRINOGENOUS, FIBRINOPLASTIC, adj's. Fi-bri2n-o-jean-i2k, -O2j'e2n-u3s, -pla2st'i2k. See FIBRINOGENOUS. [s. 49]